AdamR28 Posted September 15, 2014 Author Report Share Posted September 15, 2014 Awesome - we're glad you had fun, that was exactly the intention Thanks a lot for the feedback! We have a few tweaks in the pipeline for the next one (yes, I've said it!), I'll get them down in writing asap and we'd love to hear your comments. We're under no illusions that this format could replace 'regular' competitions, but from the atmosphere yesterday it seemed there are loads of people out there who just want to have fun on their bikes, take the piss out of their mates when they fall off, get satisfaction from making a gate they wouldn't normally be able to, etc., so we'd like to develop a format that allows you to do all of those things and more. Cheers again to everyone who came along, helped out, observed and spectated! 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paperclip Posted September 15, 2014 Report Share Posted September 15, 2014 I went up to watch and FUN was had. really want to ride the next one, great idea, great people, anyone can ride any level and you can try any lines you like/think you can do. I couldn't imaging many more sections been added in the future though having two observers per section? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AdamR28 Posted September 15, 2014 Author Report Share Posted September 15, 2014 I went up to watch and FUN was had. really want to ride the next one, great idea, great people, anyone can ride any level and you can try any lines you like/think you can do. I couldn't imaging many more sections been added in the future though having two observers per section? Good stuff Yeah, the observer thing is an 'issue' if you wanted to try and add more sections, however the way I see it is this... - You can't run a comp without observers. - Therefore you need to look after the observers. - Giving them a lunch break (with a free lunch) and having someone else with them at the section (2 observers per section) makes their day more enjoyable. Nothing worse than being stuck in the same place for 5-6 hours a day on your own! - Hopefully, you may eventually end up with more volunteer observers given this way of doing it...? Had a few people yesterday say they actually enjoyed observing, which was cool! We ended up with 11 observers and 1 at the control tent all day, so we had one spare to 'float' - BUT 6 of those probably would have ridden the comp given the chance. If that doesn't work, how would people feel about self-observing? It works well in car autosolos, basically you have two 'pools' of entrants, one drives the courses while the other officiates, and then you swap round. This isn't the UCI World Champs so there's no point being militant with the observing, if you're getting your bike through the gates and not taking the piss with the markers and tape then it's all good. In my mind it would work a bit like this... - At sign on you indicate which people you'd like to go round with for the day. From memory I don't remember seeing groups much larger than 4 people, maybe 5 at a push. - With 5 sections and, say, 40-45 riders, that's 8-10 riders per section. - Allocate 10 pools of riders (2 per section), making sure a complete group of mates is together within a pool. - Send 2 pools of 4 or 5 riders to each of the 5 sections, so you'd have 8-10 riders at each section. - One pool rides while the other observes, then swap over. - When the section is finished, one pool goes 'right' (if they start at 1, they then go to 2, then 3, etc) and the other pool goes 'left' (if they start at 5, they then go to 4, 3, etc). Benefits: - You don't need to have 'fixed' observers. - You will probably end up riding with (and observing for) a wider number of riders than you normally would. - You'll never end up with a big queue at a section because there's only ever the same amount of riders at each section. - You can actually learn quite a lot from watching other riders in a section! Downsides: - You might end up in a group with someone you don't like. - A bit more admin. - Possible lack of consistency with the observing (although with tape in the right places it should help). - Maybe end up with people 'cheating' since there are no 'proper' observers? Although you'd hope not, since it would mean there are 4-5 observers! (And probably more of both I've not thought about!) I'm probably living in a dream world, but what do you guys think? Another point is that marking out the sections is a laborious task, especially when you have to try and make all the routes 'cross'. I think it was about 7 hours to do 5 sections and there were 6 of us setting out. Speaking to Mick Carthy, they've had to do 8 sections with 2 people in the pissing rain before, not fun... Maybe you don't need more than 5 sections? Maybe a smaller entry is better anyway? 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
isitafox Posted September 15, 2014 Report Share Posted September 15, 2014 I think maybe one more section would have been ideal had there been enough manpower to provide it, and the limited entries meant you weren't stood around waiting for ages like normal. The nominated starter section you did on the 2nd lap was good in my opinion, I ended up finishing my lap in around 35-40 minutes though I wasn't stood around with friends the 2nd time around I just went for it on my own. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AdamR28 Posted September 15, 2014 Author Report Share Posted September 15, 2014 Yeah, with hindsight an extra section or 3 laps would have been good - we didn't think people would get through their laps as quickly as they did. Glad the nominated starter section seemed to work, feedback from a few of the observers was that a lot of people seemed to ignore that request, haha, but I guess it helped a bit Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paperclip Posted September 15, 2014 Report Share Posted September 15, 2014 I was more so just making the point as it was mentioned in the thread you plan on maybe adding more sections. Having not ridden yesterday I wasn't saying more was needed, having also not rode a comp in a long time I don't personally know what to say regarding self observing. going from yesterday though people tend to want to ride in their own groups I am not sure if that is a plus or negative. Did the paired observers change to another section after the lunch break? It is really awesome that you are taking the time to do this and replying in detail. Do you have any ideas where abouts you will be holding future ones? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AdamR28 Posted September 15, 2014 Author Report Share Posted September 15, 2014 Aahh I see - makes sense! Yeah, the self-observing thing was a general question to anyone, I appreciate it's kinda radical but might work... Maybe... The paired observers didn't swap this time. We thought about it but decided consistency in the sections was important. Ah, cheers. It's cool though, we just want people to get out on bikes and have fun, that's what it's about... We're looking at possibly Lee Mill for the next one. Tony Lund at the council has been in touch a couple of times asking if we have anything we can use the facility for. There's quite a lot of MTBers up there all the time but the trials stuff is barely used since they are only allowed 4 (from memory) motorbike trials days there a year. It's fairly bleak when the weather is bad, and the rocks are mega slippery, but you can definitely put on some good sections. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jack1987 Posted September 15, 2014 Report Share Posted September 15, 2014 I really enjoyed observing and think that was helped by having two. There were some long periods when nobody was at our section so could have been a bit boring sat on your own. I don't think self observing would work because there wouldn't be any consistency on the sections. All in all I think the comp was a complete success it was cool to see people push themselves trying gates they normally wouldn't be able to do. It was also really good to see so many people complete sections without dabbing. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Northern Bike Trials Posted September 15, 2014 Report Share Posted September 15, 2014 Glad to see it worked Adam - apologies i never made it. I forgot to ring you guys with the Racing Line Pivot Bolt...i never found anything suitable so the lever just falls out! I would see how the second one goes with the observers and sections. We were lucky that not just Biketrials guys got involved in ours, local Motorbike lads came along and rode and observed too . ( observers are a huge problem ) I think if there is ever a prize or top positional award its not right really to self mark. Even in moto-trials, if one section is self-marked its always the one with "questionable" marks ( or cleans! ) beside it. Its certainly thrown a few ideas into the "comp" mix, and i hope the second one goes well! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AdamR28 Posted September 15, 2014 Author Report Share Posted September 15, 2014 Cheers for the feedback Jack - and of course for observing too! No worries Paul, it was a shame you couldn't get down but I know you're a busy chap Good point about self-observing not being ideal if there is a prize / positional award... so maybe this sort of thing would be better without positions / awards? Maybe it would work just giving a 'focus' to the day, and it ends up as simply a gathering of riders looking to have a good day out that would be a good thing? Trials riders tend to ride in smaller groups nowadays from what I can tell, but everyone always enjoy a group ride. Gotta fly but I'll add more later... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Herbertlemon102 Posted November 19, 2014 Report Share Posted November 19, 2014 Bit of a bumpage but I'd really like to go to one of these! Any idea if/when? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AdamR28 Posted February 4, 2015 Author Report Share Posted February 4, 2015 Oops, completely missed this until now! There are plans to do another but nothing concrete yet. It very much depends on the rest of the calendar and when we have free weekends. Have just stuck up a video from the first one here: http://www.trials-forum.co.uk/topic/189935-tartybikes-open-trial-video/ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JT! Posted February 24, 2015 Report Share Posted February 24, 2015 Wow missed this entire topic. It's been a long time coming. Over the years there's been a buildup of complaints about strategic dabs so it's really nice to see an alternative like this. So the picture in the original post, does that show everything available or is there more areas (not saying that isn't enough just wasn't clear to me)? My only one criticism is the whole BIU/UCI rules. One thing I never liked when we had comps out here is that the easier categories would be BIU and the harder categories would be UCI, as you've done here. My issue with that has always been that it makes the leap from (in your case) blue to red much bigger. It maybe would be nice to allow the riders to ride how they want though any of the gates by possibly having bonuses for no pedals / bash touching though a gate. Or maybe just having different scorecards for people who want to ride BIU and a different one for people who want to ride UCI. As a metal basher it would suck to be scoping out the red gates, but being put off by the fact that I'd had to keep it all rubber. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AdamR28 Posted February 24, 2015 Author Report Share Posted February 24, 2015 The pic shows everything - 5 of each colour of gate. Hope that makes sense (the vid in the post directly above yours might help a bit too). I know what you mean there, but by not *having* to ride a certain colour and easy red gates probably being about the same as hard blue gates, you do get the chance to try some, and by the end of the comp everyone finds their own level (in theory!). The scores should work out with the best riders (those who have cleared the highest number of harder gates) at the top of the score sheet, too. That in itself does create an issue though, it's very hard to classify riders, other than by wheel size and / or age. We considered letting people ride as they want but we strongly feel that BIU makes trials look a bit shit. On the flip side, it's tricky for kiddies to ride UCI so you have to let them use pedals and bashes. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JT! Posted February 25, 2015 Report Share Posted February 25, 2015 Actually now that I've reread the rules the issue becomes a non-issue. I didn't realize that you can switch to and from the different rules as you go. So blue gate, red gate then blue gate would mean you'd be riding BIU, UCI then BIU? That's pretty cool. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AdamR28 Posted February 25, 2015 Author Report Share Posted February 25, 2015 Yup, pretty much that. We tweaked it on the day to make it a bit less complicated, something along the lines of 'you can use a pedal or bash anywhere except in aiding the passing of a red or yellow gate', so people could pause for a rest or whatever. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paperclip Posted March 2, 2015 Report Share Posted March 2, 2015 Just saying but it's Spring now so.................. After seeing the "comp scene is dead" or whatever the topic name was I just instantly thought of this (positively ) as it's just another thing to be excited for this year. I know that in the comp's no boundary is there against different forms of riding but this concept appeals way more towards other mixes of riding like street trials or TGS. A non stop section would be so cool! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark W Posted March 4, 2015 Report Share Posted March 4, 2015 From what I think I may have read somewhere online at some point, there's a taster section at Tarty Days if that tickles your fancy. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paperclip Posted March 4, 2015 Report Share Posted March 4, 2015 From what I think I may have read somewhere online at some point, there's a taster section at Tarty Days if that tickles your fancy. Sounds good, I'm waiting to get some money's in a week or so so I have some free cash to order my ticket (Yet another cool thing to look forward to). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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